Although few of you may remember me, I too regret that I won't be able to make the upcoming reunion. Particularly ironic, for I live over a thousand miles away, yet will, because of work, be hurtling toward Los Angeles at 500 mph only hours after the reunion has ended.
Here, in true USA Today style, is my life in brief since, when? 1971?
In 1972, I left California (more-or-less for good) to finish my undergrad education at an artsy-fartsy college in Vermont, called Bennington. (All female until shortly before I arrived, I realized how behind-the-times I was when one girl assumed that I must be having my choice every night, and I wasn't!) There I composed music, started a Madrigal group (there wasn't one), and performed an all-Charles Ives concert for my senior recital (it being his 100th birthday, had he only lived!). However, after graduating in '74, I quickly realized that a life of practice rooms in big cities wasn't for me, so I returned to the woods.
I lived in northern California for about a year, drifting around, working as a gardener, etc., until I moved to Missoula, Montana (more-or-less permanently) in 1975. I enrolled at the University in the field of wildlife, first to obtain a second Bachelor's, and when that become too boring, to obtain a Masters. In between, I met my future wife, taught music in a small Indian reservation town for 3 years, and learned to hunt. After numerous fits and starts (including a stint taking coyotes out of foot-hold traps in Alberta, and hosting a weekly classical music show on our local NPR radio station), I completed an M.S. in wildlife in 1984, got married and went to Asia (3 months, Lonely-Planet style) for honeymoon. I worked for a year doing computer-based (quantitative) research on grizzly bears.
In 1986, my wife Barb and I had our first child, Ellen, who was born severely brain-damaged and never got past a developmental age of 2 months. Most that year was spent coping with that, and our decision that it was best for all for Ellen to live institutionally (eventually in Simi Valley, story too long for USA Today style). I got a job in Alaska, where I leapt out of helicopters on baby caribous, and spent the winters behind a computer. Barb never quite adjusted (the dark more than the cold), and came back home to Missoula after about 18 months. Meanwhile, I maintained interest in conserving Asian wildlife, so went to China briefly, which pissed off my boss in Alaska.
In 1989, I returned to Missoula and wife, and began a program which eventually led to learning to speak Chinese, starving at a Tibetan monastery, riding horseback with Kazaks, and lots of jet-lag. Oh yes, they eventually gave me another degree for all that hardship. The real payoff, though, came in 1991, when Barb and I adopted Lia from an orphanage in Tianjin (after 2 months of bureacratic haggling in Chinese). The best decision of our collective lives.
I spent most of '93-94 in Yunnan province, China, trying to figure out why a New-York-based NGO had sent me there. Barb and Lia spent summer of '94 with me, where Lia discovered why she preferred Montana to China: no icky potties here. Meanwhile, Barb, who'd been an administrator of non-profits and women's groups, decided to return to her earlier interest, medicine. She spent 2 years at Yale becoming a Physician Assistant, where I occasionally was but mostly wasn't. I got a job working for the state here in Missoula, trying to help foresters be nicer to bambis, and single-dadding Lia. Barb finished her program late in '96, and Ellen, our damaged daughter, died that December.
Barb now works as a P.A. here, Lia is 7 in 2nd grade, and I've left my state job to concentrate on wildlife research in China and private consulting. I just returned from a workshop in Lhasa, and will be doing field work in the desert mountains of Gansu later this fall. In between, I'm paying bills by leading group tours to China, which is why I'll miss the reunion. While you're all reminiscing and reacquainting, I'll be shepherding 30 groggy tourists back from Shanghai.
Fun to hear from you all again, and wish I could see some old friends. (But, in all honesty, not regretting my decision many years ago to leave southern California). Be well all.
Rich Harris (small guy with bass voice).Richard
B. Harris, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Wildlife Biology Program
University of Montana
218 Evans
Missoula, MT USA 59801
Tel./Fax: (406) 542-6399
rharris@montana.com